Volkswagen makes racing history with record-breaking electric race car
Electric power beats the internal combustion engine fair and square in major motorsport.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/06/75 ... -race-car/


Electrify America will deploy 2,000 350kW fast chargers by the end of 2019
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/04/el ... d-of-2019/

Next car will probably be electric - I'll hold on to my TDI (barring any unforeseen indecent or accident) until it finally gives up the ghost.

I wonder if they fudged the race by using tainted software.

I think EV and Hybrids are great.

I'd also love to get a hybrid or EV in the future. But for the moment, I'm happy driving my 18 y/o manual Corolla that gets 42mpg on the highway (conservative speeds).

It's like a VW Beetle but with a/c. Actually, I call it my "lil' cucaracha"... it's small, quick, and hard to kill.

The folks at Fau-Vey needed a win - and that's a great two-fer to get!

Talk about an electric drill on steroids!



(I hate the siren they make EVs use. )

I had a TDI wagon 6 speed manual. Wonderful car until the recall. No way to keep them in California without gorking the performance so I went with a Leaf. Not nearly as fun to drive but it works great as my commuter.

Just think. In 200 years...



From Woody Allen’s movie Sleeper.
Back when he was funny and not so creepy.

HuckleberryFun wrote: Sun Oct 28, 2018 9:24 pm Just think. In 200 years...



From Woody Allen’s movie Sleeper.
Back when he was funny and not so creepy.

Too bad it landed on a turtle.

I don't object to German cars, but I've NEVER been able to stomach a Volkswagen, Porsche or Audi--the Volkswagen group.
Not only was it Hitler's car, but the cheating on the emissions testing was not new.
In the late 70's and 80's, there was a federal requirement that cars be able to accept a 5mph front-end collision with no damage. Consumer Reports had a machine they called their "bumper basher" for testing cars, but in the early 80's they retired it because every car passed. Every car. Then, under Reagan, that requirement was dropped (1985? cars) and CU pulled the basher out of mothballs. Most cars still passed and a few sustained minor damage.

Then CU tested the VW Rabbit. To their shock the car sustained SO much damage that it's frame was bent and the car was considered totaled! I believe they rated it "UNACCEPTABLE". So they tested the same model Rabbit from the previous year and it sustained NO damage!

Volkswagen had DELIBERATELY re-engineered the Rabbit to make it less safe, less able to sustain damage. Deliberately. That was the only reasonable inference. To save money. 30 years later, they were still doing the same thing!

As far as I am concerned Volkswagen will never convince ME to own any of its products. In a universe of immoral and unprincipled companies, they are one of the worst--the only one I can think of worse is Monsanto.

That's an exciting development. I hope next year is the year of the EV and the beginning of massive adoption. I spoke with my condo board and they are not too opposed to EV charging. It wasn't a hard no, just a give us a plan. I don't think my next car will be an EV but the one after almost certainly will be. The big attraction for me beyond the environmental benefits is not needing to get gas and having a lower TCO.

I've yet to see an auto maker that wasn't involved in some kind of safety scandal, fudging of data or just plain poor engineering.
The Ford (Firebird) Pinto comes to mind, Toyota Prius brake failure and it's flawed design.
Electric autos are coming, might take a bit, maybe by the time I retire or hit 85 they'll be prevalent.
Last I read GM was trying to get Trump to repeal the alternative to fuel economy standards put into place by O'Bama which would give them an advantage.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/10/gm ... rom-trump/

By hook or crook these auto makers are always kibitzing.

IBM sold computation machines to the Third Reich during the war, Fanta Orange soda was a developed in Germany and was substitute for Cocal-cola during the war, it has always been owned by Coca-cola.

Um, the Firebird was made by Pontiac--essentially a Camaro with a few differences. It was not made by Ford.

The VW group has, from what I gather, too many of these--remember the Audi self-pressing gas pedal?

And while I will make NO apologies for Ford and the Pinto, I know of no other car-maker who, upon having a safety regulation dropped, redesigned and retooled their lines, deliberately, to make their cars LESS safe. It is, AFAIK, unique.

The Ford Firebird...a bad joke.
I lost some faith in VW after the scandal - the deliberate incorporation of a software switch to fool testing.
I'm curious as to how it came to light as I was never required to undergo emissions testing as part of an annual inspection, it's not done with a diesel.

Wow the videos were breathtaking how fast that car accelerated.

It is funny how it sounds though, like an r/c toy car. Yeah, if they didn’t have the goofy siren, people wouldn’t know to watch out in time to stay out of the way.

Damn, that thing was fast!

Yeah mechanical engines are ridiculous. We knew that in 1910.

With all the shit going on i still have to stop almost daily and think about how we are at a point in evolution unlike no other.....but it will take generations to realize it. We can go anywhere and have the worlds data on call virtually instantaneously, generate our own electricity and go from one point to another without self effort or fuel. We can generate income remotely and or sporadically through temp labor to purchase food and clothing. We can follow the seasons instead of pumping CO2 into the atmosphere running heat and AC in a house thats so expensive we have to labor 1/2 our lives away to pay for it. Theres now no logical reason most people to live a neo-neolithic existence.

We are poised, capable and quickly becoming forced not for a mere revolution, but for a new epoch.

What an exciting time to be alive!